What happened
AT&T (T 1.10%) scored, if not a touchdown, then a field goal that tilted the score in its favor at the end of the week.
DirecTV, in which the company holds a majority stake, announced a fresh multi-year broadcasting deal with a top professional sports league. Investors liked the sound of that and rewarded AT&T by kicking its share price 2.3% higher on the day. With that figure it notched a victory over the S&P 500 index, which rose by 1.3%.
So what
DirecTV announced it signed a deal to broadcast the NFL Sunday Ticket set of National Football League (NFL) games for commercial locations (casinos, restaurants, bars, etc.) throughout the U.S.
The deal will kick off with the upcoming 2023-2024 NFL season although somewhat oddly DirecTV didn't specify its exact duration.
NFL Sunday Ticket is a package that offers all regular-season league games played on that day and broadcast in local markets by CBS and Fox. It is popular with fans who live outside the native cities of their favorite teams, and NFL aficionados who travel at least occasionally during the season. It was launched in 1994.
Given the sturdy popularity of the NFL, not to mention the lucrative advertising sold during the league's games, Sunday Ticket is certainly a hot ticket. Alphabet signed up last December to stream the service exclusively in the U.S. through its YouTube Primetime Channels and YouTubeTV streamers. That deal apparently totals roughly $14 billion for a seven-year period.
Now what
Any broadcasting service benefits from having a strong sports anchor, and NFL Sunday Ticket is among the most compelling ones. While the financial particulars of the deal were lacking in DirecTV's announcement, it's hard to imagine the deal not being worthwhile for its big institutional shareholder.
